House vs. Home

I realized that I have bitched and moaned about the shambles of a house we returned to in February, but in all fairness, the place really was a disaster.  When we left the house back in early 2009 the front area looked like this:

Upon our return it looked like this: 

I'm scared looking at the picture.  Imagine the poor children trick or treating this year.....hell who am I kidding I'm sure our house was passed as parents told their children "No one is home there, lets keep going"

However, with lots of disgust and 1 handsaw it now looks like this:

The landscapers don't start until the beginning of May - bummer.  However, they will be completely re-doing/re-planting this area with Holly bushes, daylillies, fresh mulch and a few other plants and flowers.  BK and I stressed the words LOW MAINTENANCE a lot during our conversations with the landscapers. 
The inside of our house was a real challenge.  So we began by having the whole interior professionally painted.  This gave it a fresh new look and made it feel more like OUR home.  Although, the interior is still a work in progress, the family room area is complete! 

Before the painting and the curtains and the accessories.  All we had was a Jute/Chenille rug from Pottery Barn, coffee and end table from World Market, 1 table lamp from Marshalls, and a few throw pillows from Home Goods (Gosh I love that store), Pottery Barn, and World Market.:

And after painting, but still working on the finished product of accessories....

And the total complete package is.....










View from our Entryway





View from right inside the Family room



View from the Kitchen



View from  bottom other side of family room



View from 2nd floor balcony area



All in all, I have to say I am so pleased with how the family room area came out.

Next agenda item...the dining room.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what do to for a bay window?  We have a ton of natural light that comes in through our dining room so putting up curtains is nothing something I really want to do, but I'm stuck and all that is on the windows right now is white wood blinds. 

More pictures to come of the dining room progress, the nursery, and the loft - aka BK's work area

Sincerely,
The decorating diva

"Jenn has a blog"

I really only keep this blog so that I can look back and remember bits and pieces of this wonderful life I am living because I am so horrible at taking pictures, scrapbooking, writing in a journal, etc.  However, I am come to realize I am even so bad at blogging.  I let this blog go empty for weeks at a time..ugh, I am annoyed at myself for this.  Oh well, hopefully things will change in the future (I say this 34 weeks pregnant)HA.

So, we moved.  The drive from PA to NC was henious for me.  I had a sinus infection and bronchitis and drove 9+ hours with a 102.5 fever - never again!  We returned to a house in shambles.  Literally.  We had 2 massive trees falling down in our front yard, the fire alarms were going off due to low batteries, no heat, nails coming through the ceiling in the guest bedroom.  The list continues and the story goes on with something like this...
We arrived at our house on Monday 2/14/11 because that is when we were suppose to be receiving all of our items from the moving company.  (Note:  All we brought was 1 suitcase with the bare essentials an air mattress and 2 pillows).  We didn't get our things until Friday 2/18/11 1 hour before our new OB appointment.  So, without our stuff I went to the grocery store and loaded up on Amy's frozen organic dinners so we could eat something without the use of pots and pans.  I spent around $150.00 on these frozen meals and other refrigerator items, like milk, yogurts, etc.  12 hours after I returned from grocery shopping on Tuesday our refrigerator "engine" went out - No fridge for us.  Everything went bad and we had to go out on Wednesday and buy a brand new refridgerator - awesome!  So on Wednesday 2/16 I thought I should probably wash the 2 pairs of underwear and socks we brought.  To my surprise the washing machine was broke.  "Hi washing machine repair man please come out I would love nothing more than to spend hundreds of dollars on now fixing this problem, thanks."  (ps - the repair man was so wonderful and nice, we will use him again if needed, I just got angry reliving the situation so that is why my quote is so passive aggressive, sorry.) 

All in all, life is great.  We are blessed....exhausted and stressed but never the less grateful.  I will post pictures of the before and after.  We just got the whole interior of the house painted and now the landscapers are coming out to completely redue the lawn, plant, fix our flooding/drainage issue (a whole other post in itself).  And my poor husband, he has worked so hard on everything around here while maintaining a 70+ hour work week and traveling over night every week since moving here.  

Truly, life is great and we are excited for the arrival of Baby M.  Speaking of Baby M..here are his/her specs:

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along:  33 Weeks

Size of baby: Baby M is the size of a honeydew. Weighing in at about 5 lbs and about 17 inches long

Total Weight Gain: 24 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I wear all maternity pants - love the jeans and leggings! Everything else is my normal stuff

Gender: We shall find out when this little baby arrives

Movement: ALL the time especially after eating and at night

Sleep: Not that great - the amount of effort it takes to roll from one side to another is unreal

What I miss: Raw sushi, a fabulous nights sleep, occasional adult beverage

Cravings: no real cravings, rather just hungry and thirsty ALL the time
Symptoms: My feet hurt by the end of the day and sometimes they are swollen - lovely!, I will get contractions here and there, which feel so painful for the 30 seconds that they last so I really can't imagine labor..eek.

Best Moment this week: Starting to pack our hospital bag and realizing that in just a few short weeks we will become parents to this little miracle

Previous bump pics follow:



Yikes!